


Cautionary Tales (That Only the Moon Knows)

by notquiteaphoenix



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Creatures & Monsters, Alternate Universe - Medieval, Gen, Implied/Referenced Homophobia, Original Character Death(s), Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-14
Updated: 2019-11-14
Packaged: 2021-01-29 17:21:23
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,513
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21413839
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/notquiteaphoenix/pseuds/notquiteaphoenix
Summary: Jack Morrison doesn't have much in life he holds dear. He came to the walled city with nothing and owes to much to the generosity of others.The city is a safe place, with its walls and guards.Some say, beyond those walls, wolves can be heard.And sometimes threats wander in, just like Jack did.But Jack will do a lot to keep those he cares for protected.[Bloody76 Week: Hero/Monster]
Relationships: Minor or Background Relationship(s)
Kudos: 13
Collections: Bloody 76 Week





	Cautionary Tales (That Only the Moon Knows)

**Author's Note:**

> Content warnings available in End Notes

It’s easy enough to lead the girls home and make his excuses.

He deposits Alejandra into her mother’s arms, promising to help with the bakery’s deliveries the next day. It was not the first time he shook away the offer Alejandra and her family made for him to stay the night in their cottage, and thus no reason to raise any suspicion.

With Lena and Emily, Jack follows carefully. Quietly. Joining in the conversation about the day at the market just enough to not seem more terse than usual. 

He follows them, smile tempered by the nervous glances the girls make to the street. 

A week ago, their eyes were only for each other, young love in full bloom.

A week ago, they did not know fear.

They shouldn’t know fear, not here between the forest and the sea, where goddesses blessed people with such bounty that petty, twisted hates should have no root.

And then that man—

Jack shoves that thought down along with the growl. His teeth feel heavy in his mouth and Jack wonders, as his eyes scan the narrow streets, what Vincent would think now. 

Vincent, who shared his family’s gifts and love so freely with Jack and never truly understood fear or hate until that very day…

Jack shakes his head to free himself of the memories. History won’t repeat itself. 

Jack won’t let it.

Lena is harder to convince away. 

She’s learning fear, after all.

Jack can smell it and he fights the growl again. Instead, he ushers her into Emily’s home and teases her about worry about an old man too much.

He’ll be safe, he promises. 

And silently promises her safety too.

He pulls his hood up and quietly walks westward. He knows a way out of the city and straight into the woods, the path the shadows know. He knows where to find his prey.

He promised Lena to be safe and so he won’t use the city gate. Won’t leave a memory for any guard with the right superstitions.

Not that many pay him much attention anyway. The miscreant who dared put fear in Lena’s eyes never even glanced at him in the tavern, too concerned about telling the barmaid of his hunting skills and plans to poach in the forest.

* * *

  
  


Once, Jack would have shied away from the hunger, the very taste of the hunt. Shied away from his given nature, even as Vincent found rabbits and deer to teach him—

But humans took that.

The worst monsters, those humans warped by their fears and hate.

Took his more peaceful _ aberrant _nature, the one tempered by love and left to only what the monsters gave him.

So Jack tastes the fear on the air and lets the hunger call forth his teeth and fur.

He has yet to do anything but follow the man.

His prey is easy to find. 

Too loud in town, throwing insults and threats to women just making a life together--

And far too loud on a forest path.

His prey is not entirely stupid, he seems to notice how the forest quiets. Doesn’t know why the animals have fled but must sense that the sudden quiet is wrong.

Well, quiet as the forest can be with a human trampling leaves and his breathing quickening in response to an instinct from when humans knew they could be prey.

Finally, when the moon is high, Jack slips from the underbrush and follows him on all four paws. 

  
  


_ This _ fear Jack welcomes. The man’s eyes are wide and his scent twists so much like how Lena and Emily’s had earlier in the market, when this man had cornered Jack’s girls.

Jack gives an exaggerated lick of his chops.

The man aims his bow and reaches for an arrow. Jack hurls his body into him, sending the man into the bushes.

Jack, in this moon-blessed form, is no small beast. He has met real wolves and knows he is much bigger.

The bow drops and tangled into the branches. It would be no use this close, even if the full moon did not gift Jack with her strength. 

Jack lets the man ‘escape’ a few paces ahead, further from the path before actually running after him. He bites into a bicep and drinks in the screams.

Human blood is not new to his tongue. 

He just hasn’t allowed himself to savor it in a long time.

Jack bites into the man’s hand next, feeling fingers break as easily as bird bones under his teeth. 

The man kicks him, fighting and screaming. Jack goes for the other hand and breaks it just as easily. 

Then he goes for the throat, quieting the man for a moment. Jack pulls himself into a more human form as he does and his growls fade into a short huff of a laugh. 

“You brought this on yourself,” Jack tells the man once he is human enough to speak, leaning over him to get a good look at his prey.

“You’re that old beggar.”

Jack laughs, the sound harsh. He lifts a hand to the man’s eyes, letting him see his claws before drawing back to punch him in the mouth.

“No, please…” The man rasps. “I didn’t do anything!”

“You’ve never thrown a bottle at a girl?”

There is uncertainty in his face and _ oh _ Lena wasn’t the first time.

Jack growls. “You should have kept to yourself in the market.”

He blinks and the confusion clears. “She’s an abomination—“

“Shhh,” Jack places a bloody claw to the man’s lips. Jack knows that word well, remember what people he once cared for, those he once called neighbor and friend  did to Vincent with that word in their mouths.

That will not happen to Lena. Not even if he has to exceed the great wolf of the moon and devour the world as well as the sun.

He scrapes his nails down the man’s face, holding him down with the weight of his body as the man screams.

“Why,” The man gasps out. “Do you care? This has nothing to do with you!”

Jack punches him in the stomach this time. That is not a story for this man. One day he will tell Lena about Vincent. The good things, not of places where hate like this man’s twists into things darker than threats and throwing bottles.

But this man deserves nothing of Vincent.

He deserves none of the love and hope and beautiful strangeness of Vincent’s world.

Not this twisted seed of hateful terror, that snaps and threatens anything—anyone—different .

And so, in a quick motion, Jack tears out the man’s throat with sharp teeth in a deceptively human mouth.

He shreds the body. Stopping the heart should prevent sharing Vincent’s gift, but Jack would not let a single chance of sharing.

Let this man die with just twisted words and let carrion feed on his flesh.

He lifts his head to the moon, more wolf than man once more. He howls and sings victory to the moon.

No voices call back to his.

Jack pushes down the part of him that always _ hopes _.

* * *

The wolf in him...wants.

Not hungers, at least not in the time way that sharpens his teeth.

No, something about the closeness as he helps Lena and Emily set up shop the next day.

_ Wolves are not meant to be alone, _ Vincent had told him, when Jack was still far too human to just know. _ That is why I chose you. _

A whimper escapes him, a wolf longing. Jack turns the sound into a cough.

“Are you okay?” Emily asks, soft worry in her voice.

“Fine,” He grunts out, voice still rough. Shapeshifting between forms so rapidly takes a toll but he had promised all his girls to see them the next day. Alejandra had talked enough for both of them earlier but now the youngest girl across the market with her mother and unable to distract the others.

Lena is suddenly in his face, hand against his forehead. “Are you sure you’re okay? I think you should stay with us tonight and—”

“Lena, I’m just old.” Jack steps back. “Lena, about that heckler…”

Lena looks at him, heartbeat picking up and fear starting to twist her scent.

“I...talked with him,” he tells Lena hurriedly, before his wolf could start searching for a threat. “He’s not the type to stay. Easy to convince him to move along.”

She looks at him with bright, warm eyes. Her arms jerk a few times before she gives in and hugs him.

“With any luck, he’ll be eaten by wolves,” Jack tells her, fighting a grin this time.

She gasps, stuck between amusement and hilarity. Then hits him in the shoulder. “Don’t say such things!”

“Goddess willing,” Emily whispers.

This time, Lena goes after Emily and they mock chase each other around the market stall.

Jack thinks Vincent would have liked them. 

There is no fear in Lena’s scent now and Jack allows a small smile. 

The wolf in him settles.

For now. 

**Author's Note:**

> Content warning: References to homophobia, references to attacks based on homophobia, and fairly graphic violence (which is separate from the other two warnings). 
> 
> This is a bit messy but this fic is what happens when I watch a movie that depicted a violent hate crime and then watch the Hero short for inspiration for Bloody76 Week. And then store in some Lore podcast with historical stories of monsters and voilà~
> 
> Feel free to commnet or find me on [twitter](https://twitter.com/wwmusing), or [pillowfort](https://www.pillowfort.social/notquiteaphoenix).


End file.
